Kids with brain injuries thrive at this camp.
asserted
Kids → thrive → camp
In an open field, arrows whizzed through the humid June air and struck their targets.
asserted
arrows → whiz → targets
Campers and counselors cheered.
asserted
Campers → cheer → ?
Operations director Drew Meyer watched, a few tears escaping from behind his dark sunglasses.
asserted
tears → watch → sunglasses
"They will surprise you, like, flat out," he said of the campers, who have all survived brain injuries.
asserted
who → surprise → injuries
"They'll come out here, and they'll shoot for three hours and start hitting the target."
asserted
they → come → target
Campers, ranging in age from 10 to 21, have been coming to Camp Cranium in Pennsylvania's rural Columbia County since 2008.
asserted
Campers → range → 2008
Some of their brain injuries are so severe that they have to relearn basics, from talking to tying their shoelaces.
asserted
they → have → shoelaces
Some use wheelchairs or crutches.
asserted
Some → use → wheelchairs
But during a week at camp, they climb rock walls, swim and whiz down a zip line through the lush forest.
asserted
they → climb → forest
The existence of Camp Cranium, as well as a handful of others like it, is a response to a decades-long national trend: More people, including children, now survive crises resulting in brain injury than they did in the 1980s.
asserted
they → include → 1980s
The improvements in survival are largely due to seat belt laws and federal investments in research and trauma centers that can treat injuries quickly.
asserted
that → treat → injuries
But recently, efforts to track and prevent one type of brain injury — traumatic ones — are in flux after Congress didn't renew a law to further research and prevention of traumatic brain injuries, and the Trump administration fired hundreds of employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including the team tracking traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs.
"
asserted
administration → track → injuries
Brain injury can happen to anybody," said Rebeccah Wolfkiel, executive director of the National Association of State Head Injury Administrators.
asserted
Wolfkiel → happen → Administrators
"This community deserves more."
Tracking the actual prevalence of brain injuries
Lucas Hardy, 14, smiled at the encouraging crowd below.
asserted
Hardy → deserve → crowd
In a shady clearing in the woods, he climbed the 30-foot rock wall, aided by a hoist that pulled him out of his wheelchair and helped support his moves.
asserted
that → climb → moves
Hardy suffered a traumatic brain injury at age 3, when a tree branch fell on him at a birthday party.
asserted
branch → suffer → party
Annually, an estimated 2.8 million Americans experience a TBI, including about 475,000 children, according to the Brain Injury Association of America.
uncertain
Americans → estimate → America
Recent data suggests those numbers are undercounts.
uncertain
numbers → suggest → ?
In 2018, a CDC team piloted a household survey asking about TBIs in a sample of U.S. children and adults.
asserted
team → pilot → children
The results informed a study concluding that such injuries, which are often considered "hidden" because the damage is internal and unseen, are more widespread than hospitalization numbers suggest.
asserted
numbers → inform → study
The mass firings at the CDC in early 2025 gutted the team studying TBI, right before it was expected to launch a nationwide concussion surveillance system.
asserted
it → gutte → system
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, Emily Hilliard, did not respond to questions about the number of employees terminated or whether they were reinstated or replaced.
asserted
they → respond → employees
In a statement, she said: "The Trump Administration remains committed to supporting efforts to prevent traumatic brain injuries, improve surveillance, and ensure Americans have access to practical, evidence-based information that can help protect their health and safety."
asserted
that → say → health
She said the agency's TBI work is now handled by other staff members at the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
asserted
work → say → Prevention
Hilliard said the CDC is deciding how to establish a cost-effective national concussion surveillance system within the bounds of current funding, and she said the agency in 2026 dedicated funds to support, among other things, an educational campaign about concussions, an injury prevention program and concussion surveillance.
asserted
agency → say → concussions
But Wolfkiel still worries about how the CDC firings and the impasse over federal funding will affect brain injury research and prevention efforts in the long term.
asserted
firings → worry → term
"The lack of resources and programs and information that's out there is really just sort of appalling," Wolfkiel said.
asserted
Wolfkiel → say → resources
Tony Sadowski, the camp's executive director, remembers when his son, Bryan, suffered a brain bleed that caused a hemorrhagic stroke at age 6.
asserted
that → remember → age
"You're in the emergency room," he recalled, "not knowing what version of your son's going to wake up.
asserted
version → recall → son
"
Now 18, Bryan Sadowski has attended the camp for years.
asserted
Sadowski → attend → years
"We're very lucky to be able to be here," the elder Sadowski said.
asserted
Sadowski → say → ?
In 1996, before Bryan was born, Congress passed the Traumatic Brain Injury Act, which has provided many states with grants for TBI research, advocacy and services.
asserted
which → bear → research
Congress reauthorized the act four times, largely with bipartisan support, until 2024.
asserted
Congress → reauthorize → 2024
It has remained lapsed since then.
asserted
It → remain → ?
Trump's secretary of homeland security, Markwayne Mullin, supported reauthorizing funding when he was a senator.
asserted
he → support → funding
Congress is still considering whether to reauthorize funding through 2030.
asserted
Congress → consider → 2030
Despite the lapse in funding, money is still flowing to TBI programs at the CDC and in states, according to Rick Willis, president and CEO of the Brain Injury Association of America.
uncertain
money → flow → America
Congress did appropriate $8.25 million for TBI program activities through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026, but that's far less than the typical funding from the TBI Act.
asserted
that → appropriate → Act
The last time Congress reauthorized the act, it provided $23 million a year from 2020 to 2024 — half for the CDC's concussion research and half for grants to state programs..
asserted
it → reauthorize → programs
…and 13 more, not listed.
The Aporia
